


A disgruntled, fuzzy thing

by mousesprings



Category: Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019), Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Babies, Domestic Fluff, M/M, snuf and moomee give them a little sister, the woodies are probably...10 years old here? i dunno how they work, where the baby came from is up to you honestly lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-04-23 17:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousesprings/pseuds/mousesprings
Summary: Parenthood comes with some tribulations.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this ao3 account is just gonna be fully moomins huh.  
> so i dunno, i started feeling soft and just wanted to write the boys living a married domestic life and having a kid, so that's what's happening. i'm kinda flustered to upload this but it just be like that sometimes.

Moomintroll groggily crossed the hallway, led by the pitiful shrills and whimpers coming from the sitting room. He slapped his paw several times against the wall until it fell over a switch, and the room was illuminated with a comforting, silvery light. But unfortunately it did not staunch the cries, and Moomintroll made his way towards the little cot that had now come into view. 

He stifled a yawn and leaned over to pick up the distressed little fuzzball that was crying herself into debilitation. "What are you whimpering for this time, little miss?" he sighed, holding her to his chest as she gripped hold of his fur and vented all of her disgruntled frustrations into it. 

At least - that was what it looked like she was doing. Moomintroll thought his daughter was the sweetest little thing ever since he had first laid eyes on her and although he found her grumpiness quite endearing, he wished she could just put it off for the night for this was the third time she had awakened her parents and it was rendering the both of them very exhausted. 

Her name was Kalla-ee: without a doubt it was Snufkin who had come up with the name (a word meaning softness and purity - and then with the sound of a gentle breeze to round it off). Being only a few months old now, she had proven herself to be quite the duty for her fathers. Her ears had unfolded a week after her birth and she had opened her eyes roughly two months ago; which is the norm for moomin calves - or _moomlets_ as they're sometimes called - no matter how purebred they are. And ever since hearing and seeing the world for the first time, she would always find something to whimper about. 

Snufkin was rather good at calming her down but he had tended to her the previous two times and Moomintroll didn't want him to lose any more sleep, so he took the courtesy when Kalla-ee began to stir up again. Perhaps it was to do with Snufkin's natural likeness for being admired by many small creatures with his own daughter being no exception; but regardless, Moomintroll wished he were half as gifted. 

"Come on now, you fuzzy thing. You're not even crying properly." He ran a finger down her very dry cheeks. "You're just being a drama queen at this point." 

Alas it did not ease her woes and Moomintroll sighed, taking a seat on the rocking chair beside the cot and willing it away until his daughter would eventually tire herself out. He didn't know what else to do; she wasn't hungry, the room wasn't too hot or too cold. A nightmare, perhaps? If then, nothing he could do except comfort and hold her until she recovered. 

Just then a sharp pain ran through his paw, and Moomintroll bit his tongue in time before a loud yelp could expel itself. He looked down to find Kalla-ee now gumming his paw, entertaining herself with it. Thank the stars above calves are born without teeth. Moomintroll leaned back as his daughter chewed away, her whimpering now ceased. He sighed, unsure how long this would last, but he was thankful the room was quiet again. 

"I hope this wasn't what you wanted all this time," he scolded with play. "My paws aren't your toys, young lady." 

He knew she was unable to respond or even understand him, but it was fun talking to her. Moomintroll leaned back, trying his hardest not to fall asleep. He didn't know how long he planned to enrich his daughter this way, but for now he enjoyed the serenity.

* * *

The first time Snufkin had any real experience with children, he had accidentally taken responsibility of a band of infant woodies after antagonising a park keeper. He had hated to say it at the time, but he had found it almost enjoyable. Blame his Mymble genes perhaps. However contact with his adoptive woodie children never ceased as from that point on they had bestowed him with countless letters, which Snufkin found himself reading each and every one of them over and over. Sometimes they visited, and they still called him pappa, and Snufkin had long since stopped bothering to correct them. Because at the end of the day, he really was. 

The second experience he had, was with his own, and it was far different than the first. But had this child been _planned_ , Kalla-ee would have been born around the warmer months - and not smack-bang in the middle of winter. It was the first and only winter where Snufkin had to stay in Moominvalley despite protest, and with being confined in a lukewarm room with nothing but suffocating layers of snow outside, all while caring for a newborn moomlet and struggling to construct a new spring tune, Snufkin verbatim called it 'equally the best and the worst winter of my life'. 

Thank the heavens for Moomintroll and his family and their overwhelming amount of input, otherwise Snufkin would have been hauling him off by the ear every second of every day. 

Today was a simple Wednesday and the woodies were paying a visit. Snufkin gathered them all in the living room with his bundle in his arms.

"Step back now, all of you." Snufkin used his free arm to pry one woodie from the sofa. They were almost his size now; he missed when he used to be able to simply pick them up and place them away. "She needs to breathe." 

Another woodie leaned in, polite to avoid boundaries. "She's so lovely and soft," she cooed at the brown fuzzball in her adoptive father's arms. 

"What does she eat?" asked another.

"Nothing yet." Snufkin petted at Kalla-ee's fur. She was peacefully at sleep, hardly noticing the many pairs of curious eyes staring down at her. 

Perhaps that was for the best, for she had inherited Snufkin's dislike for social interactions and public crowds. She had favoured him when it came to needing to hide away, choosing either to hide behind his legs or up his dress robe. Kalla-ee was a shy little creature, and Snufkin swore to protect her from the displeasures of this world. 

A woodie plucked a strand of straw from their hair and began to gnaw on it. "Is she our sister now?" they asked. 

Snufkin instinctively reached across to swat the straw from their paw. "She may be," he replied. "If you're nice enough to her." 

"May I touch her fur?" asked one timid woodie. 

Snufkin was currently too protective to allow anyone but Moomintroll and his parents hold the baby, and so he mildly accepted the most gentle of caresses - if they asked nicely. 

"Try not to wake her," he advised as he accepted the request, lifting his paw and watching closely as the woodie stroked the fur along Kalla-ee's back, in thankfully such careful motions that Kalla-ee could familiarise it with Snufkin rasping his tongue across her spine as he would clean her. 

Or _used_ to clean her - before Moomintroll had insisted they used a proper bathtub.

"What did your pappa say about giving some space?" Talk of the devil. Snufkin would have fibbed if he said he did not give a tiny sigh of relief as Moomintroll emerged from the kitchen, bound by an apron. "If you want little Kalla to be your sister, don't you think some boundaries should be respected?" 

"Pappa!" The woodies scrabbled away from the sofa to surround him, giving them the label of their other father only after the wedding ceremony. 

Snufkin leaned back on the sofa to watch them, eyes light with pride. 

"No wonder he calls you lot grokelings." Moomintroll manhandled one woodie from his shoulder, which he could do with much more ease. Snufkin was rather envious of that. "Well, since you're all here, I am preparing a hotpot for dinner and I could use some more-"

"-Potatoes!" The woodies all turned tail and swarmed out the front door, where undoubtedly some potatoes were ready for harvest. 

Snufkin blinked as the door slammed, the room now peaceful. "Huh." 

Moomintroll breathed out very deliberately and wiped at his sweaty forehead with a knuckle. "That's one way of getting them out of your hair," he commented. 

His husband turned to him with a smirk. "Trying cooking again, are you?" he purred. 

"I'm getting the hang of it." Moomintroll dusted his paws on his apron. "I didn't burn the mutton this time, and I remembered to preheat the oven!" 

"A mass improvement!" praised Snufkin with a laugh in his voice. 

He shuffled a bit towards the arm rest as Moomintroll came to sit next to him, paw on his arm as he took in awe at their wondrous creation in his husband's arms. Kalla-ee was blinking awake, stretching her tiny limbs and making a very small sound. Moomintroll felt like he could cry. "How did she manage to sleep through the woodies?" he murmured. 

Snufkin kissed their daughter between her ears. "Who knows?" He lifted his head and sniffed the air once. Then he straightened up. "The pot is burning." 

Moomintroll scrambled off the sofa. "Oh - _shit_!" 

"Moomintroll!" Snufkin scolded as he pressed Kalla-ee's head against his chest and covered her other ear with a paw. "Language!" 

"Sorry!" came from the kitchen. 

Snufkin sighed with a smile and looked down as he discovered his daughter taking an interest in gumming his scarf. Moomlets are odd like that. "Your father and I are getting around," he said as he pried his scarf away from her mouth with a gentle paw. 

A loud thud came from outside and he leaned far back to gaze out the window, hearing the woodies make some sort of commotion over simple potato harvesting. But his smile only stretched wider. "We _all_ are, I suppose."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aah made another. i love this little troop. 
> 
> i say as the reader it's up to you to determine where kalla-ee came from but i think this chapter sorta determines it by itself. ah well, you can still think of it differently if it makes you comfortable. 
> 
> trans snufkin rights either way.

A few more months rolled by, and the two fathers began to notice something was not quite right with their little ankle-biter. 

It is natural for moomin calves to be born with a thick layer of fur, especially during the colder months. Therefore, it emerged no surprise when Kalla-ee came to the world looking like a sheepdog. Calves usually shed their postpartum fur at around the fifth month, leaving behind a smooth and soft coat that prized the moomins of their trademark squishy appearance. 

But Kalla-ee's fifth month rolled by and no shedding occurred. As a matter of fact, her fur seemed to grow longer, thickening around her neck like a mane and covering her eyes. 

Kalla-ee was expected to develop a little differently from a normal moomlet, as she also carried mumrik and Mymble genes, but when it emerged that their daughter was beginning to look like a walking brown mop, the two fathers had to take a quick visit to the grandparents. 

Moominmamma was just as coloured surprise as the pair of them when she was presented with her granddaughter, whom clearly looked very different from the last time she had seen her. She held Kalla-ee at an arm’s length, inspecting her extremely fuzzy predicament with wide-eyed curiosity. “My, oh my,” she said in a hushed voice. “How very unusual.” 

After returning her to Snufkin’s arms, she got up to rummage among the bookcase for granny’s book. Snufkin held her at his lap and petted her ears as he watched his mother-in-law with poorly shielded anxiety. “It’s nothing serious, is it?” he asked. 

“I don’t think so,” she assured as she pulled the book out. “Although I have never seen anything like it before, I must admit.”

Moomintroll lowered a paw on Snufkin’s knee and gave it a comforting squeeze. “Maybe it’s a mutation,” he suggested. “She _was_ born in winter, after all.” 

Moominmamma placed the book on the table. “Hrm, maybe so. But I have met plenty of moomins that have birthdays during the colder months, and they never present themselves looking like-...” 

Something clicked in her head and she trailed off, staring into space as her eyes seemed to light up in confirmation. Moomintroll and Snufkin were very concerned but were too polite to say anything, so they looked at each other until Moominmamma spoke again, “Ah, dears, I don’t wish to alarm the two of you. But it would appear that your little one may be having this fur problem because - well, she may not actually be what you expect.”

“What?” Moomintroll frowned. “I’m not following you, mamma.” 

“Kalla-ee may not be a moomin,” she explained. “I believe she could be a snork, actually.” 

“A _snork_?” exclaimed both fathers in unison. They swapped looks at their offspring, whom seemed to be taking more interest in the golden tassels of an archaic red velvet pillow than the revelation of her true genetics. 

Moomintroll shook his head as to try denying it. “But how is that possible?” he protested. “I’m a moomin - and so are you and pappa!” His eyes went huge and he switched a look at his husband. “Unless you have been-”

Snufkin abruptly silenced him with a cold glare. “Don’t you even,” he hissed. 

“Rest assured,” calmed Moominmamma. “It is actually very possible. Genetics are quite a messy concept, but it is probable to have a snork calf even if you just carry the gene." 

"But nobody in either of our families is a snork," argued Moomintroll. Snufkin nodded his agreement, adjusting his grip on Kalla-ee as she tried pawing at the tassels.

"That's not entirely true." Moominmamma turned back to granny's book and tapped at its cover. "I don't even need to open the book to confirm this - for Granny herself was a snork." 

Moomintroll blinked. "What? Really?" His tail lashed behind him. "How come you never told me that?" 

His mother appeared bashful. "Well, I never thought it was relevant. Until now," she admitted, looking over at her granddaughter. "Especially since the snork genes have seemed to skip two generations and collapse all over her." 

Snufkin sat up. "So my child is a snork?" 

Moominmamma nodded. "It would appear that way. I hope that won't affect anything." 

"Not at all." Snufkin parted the fur from Kalla-ee's face and smiled at her. 

"Won't she need different care than a moomin calf?" asked Moomintroll.

"Now that I read up." Moominmamma placed the book on the table and sat down to open it and scour through a flood of pages, muttering their titles until she reached her destination. "Ah - here we go. Snorks."

She turned in her chair and placed the book on her lap as she trailed a finger along the page. "It says here that snorks are similar to moomins in many ways, although one exception is that snorks don't naturally shed their fur, due to the high mountainous habitat of our shared ancestor." She glanced up. "It'll just keep growing."

"Yeah, that pretty much tips her off." Moomintroll brushed Kalla-ee's fur back over her eyes much to her amusement. Snufkin's brow furrowed. 

"Oh, this bit's interesting," said Moominmamma as her eyes skimmed to a lower paragraph. "Apparently when snorks do shed out of stress, the fur will come back temporarily as a yellowish colour." She beamed at Moomintroll. "Turns out you do have some snork genes in you after all, dear." 

"You mean when my tail turned golden a few years back?" He picked up his tail and ran a thumb through its ends. "That was a snork thing? Well, now that doesn't seem anywhere near as dazzling as it was before." 

Snufkin patted him on the shoulder. " _I_ still think so."

Moominmamma continued reading. "Here we are - _snorklets_. Snorklets act and should be cared for similarly to moomlets. However, they require much more attention to their bathing and fur care, since they're more prone to getting dirty."

"So we just need to bathe her more often?" Moomintroll's foot tapped against the floor. 

Moominmamma nodded. "And snip her fur, as it won't shed by itself."

Moomintroll cast a look towards his husband and he sighed, as though a decision had been in place. "I suppose we just have some adjustments to make." He leaned down to lightly poke Kalla-ee on her soft stomach. "Eh, little miss?"

Kalla-ee took his paw in both her own and pushed at it with her snout. Moomintroll chuckled quietly and raised an eyebrow towards Snufkin. "Our girl is full of surprises, huh?" 

"I wonder where she gets that from," Snufkin added with a playful sneer.

* * *

Snufkin was reading more of granny's book that Moominmamma had graciously loan to them under a sheet of indefinitely patterned duvet when his attention was brought to the bedroom door being slammed open. He closed the book at his lap and undressed his reading glasses as Moomintroll slumped to his side of the bed, looking rather drenched. 

"How did the bath go?" asked Snufkin. 

"She didn't really appreciate it," Moomintroll wheezed. "Now that it's going to happen more often."

He raised a paw to show a pitiful display of multiple angry scratches and bruises, dotted by many tiny plasters that only shrouded them by a smidgen. Snufkin would have chuckled at this, but seeing the truly crestfallen face of his husband caused him to think otherwise. Instead he took Moomintroll's paw into his own and softly kissed at their sore knuckles. "Oh dear, Moomintroll," he whispered. "What am I going to do with you?"

"This paw has definitely seen better days." Moomintroll slipped from his grasp and took a close inspection at his injured paw. "As a matter of fact, wasn't this the same one you broke last winter?" 

Snufkin dumped the book beside his glasses on the bedside. "Must you fall back on that?" he protested. "I said I was sorry." 

"Except I should have been the one apologising." Moomintroll clambered into bed and nestled into Snufkin's shoulder, sinking deep into the mattress as all stress seemed to release from him. "She's asleep now," he murmured, draping a paw over Snufkin's chest and drawing circles over it with a finger. "And I was thinking...since we only have a few hours of twilight left…" 

Snufkin hesitated for a moment, then swatted his paw away and settled down. "Not tonight," he said with a yawn. "I have a headache." 

"Aw. Alright." The duvet jostled as Moomintroll reached out to place both his paws in Snufkin's hair. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?" 

"When did you get so corny?" asked Snufkin with a laugh, allowing Moomintroll to nuzzle and kiss at his forehead. "Are you going to be okay with the fact our child is the opposite of what you expect?" 

Moomintroll knew he was joking but he decided to play along. "I'll be fine," he replied. "I think it's about time we bought a mop." 

"That's a bit mean," Snufkin hissed. 

"You're the one who uses the woodies like kitchen towels." 

"I stopped doing that years ago." Snufkin leaned into his cushion. "And in my defense, we had no actual kitchen towels at the time." 

Moomintroll laughed into his chest and the two shared a chuckle together, careful to keep their voices down. Eventually they died down and Moomintroll rolled to his side of the bed, twinning their tails together as he pulled the duvet over himself. But before either of them could utter a goodnight, a quiet but unmistakable chorus of whimpers came from the next bedroom.

He sighed, a headache of his own coming in right at that moment. Snufkin untangled his tail and climbed out of bed, running a paw through his hair. "I'll get her."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i lied this chapter was to boast how much of a biology bitch i am. 
> 
> i am in my work breakroom trying to upload this and hopefully it looks right because i don't know lol. help me i have 6 more hours.

**Author's Note:**

> hmm i dunno but i kinda wanna write more of this even though there's nothing really going on asdfgh; i just like writing domestic stuff i guess. 
> 
> i mean it's a break from the constant crying that's going on in divulgence am i right fellas


End file.
